An amazing Christmas Present

If I gave you thirty guesses you would never imagine the early Christmas present I’ve just had.

Would you believe it – I have discovered two half sisters I never knew about!

Maybe I’ve mentioned before that I never knew my father and my parents separated when I was a baby. It was a pretty acrimonious divorce: my mother refused my father any contact and even told me he wasn’t contributing to my support, when, in fact, he was until I was 16. She put the money in a Post Office Account and gave it to me years later.

Anyway, sometime ago I started a family tree on Genes Reunited and the day before yesterday I received a message from R who is the youger of my father’s two daughters with his second wife.

She sent me a photo and it was amazing to look at her picture and say to myself,

“That’s my sister!”

She also sent me a family photo so that I could ‘meet’ my three nephews – really handsome lads.

We have already exchanged umpteen emails and some more photos and last night we talked for well over an hour. By a strange coincidence my father remarried in the same year that my mother did and he died just two months after she did in 1997.

We have so much catching up to do but I already feel completely ‘at home’ with her. She sounds really friendly and easy to get on with. Dare I say it’s as though we’ve known each other much longer than 48 hours.

She is hoping to come and see us in the Spring. I can’t wait to meet her.

Sandy, you have a wonderful way with words, my heart was missing beats and there was a small tear in my eye as I read the article. Lots of love to you and all the family. Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year x

What a wonderful gift this must be! The gods are smiling down on you. Do enjoy getting to know these new members of you family and keep us in touch with your progression. Happy Christmas to you and your family.

Translation:
In a few hours… the magic of Christmas. In these difficult times, let’s stop our daily rushing around for a moment to be with our family or friends, capture the lights of the Christmas-tree and the candles, the sparkling eyes of the children, the laughter around a beautifully-dressed table, to create memories to cherish and traditons to pass on to our children.
Happy Festivities and may joy radiate in your home.

Good for you Sandy, I hope you get on well with them. I discovered that I had two half brothers a few years ago. Like you my Dad remarried after divorcing my mother. After he died my step mother got in contact with me and told me about my “brothers”, but I have never contacted them or met them. They didn’t want to meet me.

i have not been as lucky. my story is similar as i never met dad. they both remarried and i have six(!) half brothers and/or sisters who probably do not know about me. i got his street address from the internet and sent him a card years ago when my mother was dying but got no reply (the card did not come back). congrats on finding the other half of your life! my grandmother withheld any mail from him as she did not want him to “upset” my mother. life is truly bizarre…enjoy!

I found your blog a while ago from Guyana Girl. Very interesting reading. Wishing you all the best with your new found sister. I had a similar experience as a teenager when I met my sister from London for the first time. It was a bit of a shock for us all my dad especially because her mom never told him she was pregnant before moving away to live in England. I am a parent now and I can only imagine how painful it must be to discover your child when she is already all grown up. Imagine all that time lost! My dad has another daughter from a relationship he was in before marrying my mom. M has been a part of my life always. Living with her mom but spending weekends and holidays with us. We don’t even bother to say half sisters we are sisters. I know it must have hurt my dad something awful to have not been there for his child. There I just stopped by to say hello and have launched into a life story sorry:-) All the best to you and your family for the new year.

hello Wizzy and thank you for your lovely comment. It is sad how oneparent can prevent the other from seeing their child. I’m glad you found your sister and you get on well together. I can’t wait to meet my sisters after all this time.
All good wishes to you and yours for 2010.